Retailers Can Reap "Big" Rewards With Big Data

By Atul Batra, CTO of Manthan Systems

In a world where more data is created across the Internet every second than was stored on the entire Internet 20 years ago, it's understandable that many retailers have their misgivings about using technology to help them wade through this torrential amount of data and gain sensible, workable insights from it. But Big Data captures essential information that retailers need to make the buying process quicker and more convincing. For those who are investing in the tools to capture and analyze this Big Data, the move is paying off: according to Karem Tomak, the vice president of analytics at Macys.com, Big Data analytics has helped Macy's boost store sales by 10 percent.

So which areas of retailing can Big Data impact the most?

More effective opportunities to cross-sell and up-sell

In 2011, Netflix announced that it had licensed 26 episodes of a new miniseries called "House of Cards," based on a novel by UK Conservative Party Chief of Staff Michael Dobbs. Netflix didn't make the decision to license the show based on instinct -- it turned to Big Data to determine whether or not its users would be interested. "We have a high degree of confidence in [House of Cards] based on the director, the producer and the stars," said Steve Swasey, Netflix's VP of Corporate Communications. "We can look at consumer data and see what the appeal is for the director, for the stars and for similar dramas."

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